I was able to swim 137 metres without stopping this week, in a saltwater pool by the sea. Seriously, it's the kind of thing people would pay vast amounts of money to access in most parts of the world, and on reflection I suppose I should have been less resentful of the five-dollar admission charge.
But anyway, that's quite a distance; halfway through the length I was beginning to lag and the other side seemed so far, the other swimmers absolutely minuscule. And I could only manage the full thing once; the other lengths had to be done in sections - with the occasional bouts of "agh it's too deep to stop" anxiety. I am going to invest in a pair of goggles as soon as I can afford them - the crawl is way more efficient and I can never do it properly without them, though I did try. That day by the pool was very nice, the weather was soooo beautiful, with hot sun and a cool breeze, and a bunch of us just lay around on towels for hours.
Fake Jobs
So far I have gotten three fake jobs. The first one in fairness was too good to be true; it was our first full day here and my sister and I got approached to work in a clothing store (the expensive yoga-wear variety), and we were like "wow, this is amazing!" I envisaged the money rolling in, guaranteeing carefree lives of glamour for months to come. But it turns out that we were the extra-extra staff, called in only if we were super-required, and I got about five or six hours at most; the other "call-in" people all had "real" jobs in Best Buy and the like. In fairness the snacks were yum (ketchup-flavoured crisps and so on), and a tagging-gun no longer is the intimidating thing it used to be, but these past few weeks have been so frustrating because I like working hard - seriously - and the lounging around has been stressing me out; it's very expensive to live here but it's so lovely too, and it would be nice to just enjoy things without having to worry about how much exactly is left in the account, or where exactly that exchange place is so that I can change that emergency ten-euro note for dollars...
The second fake job was at American Apparel - the most confusing hiring process ever. Well probably not, but it was a bit odd, the way it turned out. I went into their open-call and was interviewed after about ten minutes (during which I wandered around, vaguely examining clothes I definitely can't afford). Then the following morning got an email to say that there would be training that evening, and to please confirm attendance... I thought, "that's so fast, how strange", but was fairly excited about getting a job there so thought, "grand, make sure I look nice and turn up on time". So a few other girls and I went through a training session with the girl who had interviewed us, and some of us were slightly confused at the start but we asked "if, like, this was an audition, or, like, if we were actually hired...?" and it seemed that we were, and all of the advice and information we were given seemed legit. And the second hour of training involved choosing store-outfits (the cost of which, the company would cover) and that might have been all right but I'm an EXTREMELY indecisive shopper, basically because I almost never have money to spend; an item usually needs to be on-sale before I'll even give it half a glance, and then there are all these other investment issues to be considered - like fit, style, materials, colour, match-ability with other clothes etc. So this rush to get an outfit together was highly confusing, but eventually I was advised to go for a particular pair of high-waisted shorts - which in fairness are a great pair of shorts - and a top which I was less sure about but whatever, thinking, with mounting enthusiasm, "well this is different but it's a cool-enough look... and sure I can build up my wardrobe with the staff discount... yay this is actually so great!" Then the following morning I got an email to say that they were actually at maximum capacity, and thanks for the time and so on. WHAT? And the training-pay they promised still hasn't gone into my account. Ugh. Well at least they like the look of me; perhaps I wasn't mean enough. Like no joke, I think that was possibly it.
So then the THIRD fake job was... possibly a combination of too-good-to-be-true and not being assertive/emphatic enough. Two of our lovely housemates had gotten jobs as waitresses at a newly-opening place downtown, and I had gone downtown to follow up an ad I had seen, ran into them, and they were like "go on in there; they're definitely still looking for people", and so I wandered in (there was still construction tape by the outdoor seating area), and was talking to a manager who seemed very sound and was like, "well, if you don't have much serving experience I'd rather you start out small, and our other place is definitely looking for people", and I was like, "aw amazing", cos the other place seems really really nice and you can make massive money on tips, and he had said to expect to hear back from him in the next couple of days. That never happened so I went into them again, where I was told - in completely different tones - that "no we haven't done our promotions here yet, we're definitely not taking other people", and I was like, "but what about the other place?" "I dunno, go in and talk to them I guess but..." Anyway so that was annoying, and I had planned on going into the other place the next day but instead spent time following up stuff in the local area. Which led me to two potentially authentic jobs; a hostess in another restaurant, and a server at a lovely bakery/café. I seem to have gotten the latter which seems great - it's very much a word-of-mouth place with all-natural ingredients and lots of regulars. So hope hope that goes well. Also, in direct opposition to American Apparel, they advise unsexy androgynous clothing AND you get to try out all the cakes.
Drawing cooking ginger
We've been cooking lots of stir-fries in our kitchen; with enough people to eat it and divide up the cost, you can't go wrong. I guess the problem with them would be if you lived on your own, just cos you'd have to buy vegetables but then they'd rot and stuff over time so that'd be a waste of money. But anyway we've cooked some yum ones - like, with red onion and ginger and garlic and soy sauce and mushrooms, and lemon juice on top.Anyway the first day we bought a ginger I drew it with graphite on a piece of card packaging - which had originally come with a horrible purple tablecloth that had been bought as a temporary solution to the constant problem of keeping a glass table-top looking clean. One of my plans this summer is to get wayyy better at drawing, cos in all honesty I find it scary because - unlike abstract painting, say - you can be totally wrong at it; "that's not a ginger, that's a horrible mis-shapen foot".
I took a term-long drawing class in California and at the time I found it really really stressful; I could never get anything right and also I hate hate the sound of charcoal on paper - hate it. Also the teacher would always provide instruction as we drew, and it was really fast-paced so you could never get fully absorbed in anything. And it was at 1pm and ran for almost four hours, and I'd always have had at least two 90-minute classes by that stage (oh American universities and their mad-early starts), and it wasn't a chatty, Portishead environment the painting class the previous term had been. I only fully liked it when we moved onto working with ink, cos that way I guess you're forced to be precise and not all ghostly the way pencil can be if you're drawing things in an indecisive/unsure frame of mind. So at the time I definitely didn't properly enjoy the class, but actually it's the kind of class that totally stays with you - like, as I try to draw the teacher's very valid advice will surface in my brain - it turned out to be a very effective long-term style of teaching, I guess, which is pretty cool. Although this drawing looks pretty shit - I'll improve, though (I hope).
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